A keyword search is often used to locate an item of information. To perform a keyword search, a user typically inputs at least one term that is relevant to the information to be retrieved. Upon receiving the user's input, a search engine typically examines its database or keyword index, and provides a result set that includes a listing of the best-matching items of information, if any, based on the user's input.
Generally, keyword searches may be found in a number of applications. For example, some companies may provide a keyword search tool on their employment sites to allow candidates to search for job requisitions. A job requisition typically includes various information about a job. This information may include the organization, position, salary range, work preferences, travel preferences, required skills, desired skills, and educational qualifications. To locate a job requisition, the user is responsible for coming up with the search terms that will serve as the basis for locating relevant job requisitions. However, an information retrieval system that relies primarily on the user to generate the necessary input to locate an item of information may experience a number of drawbacks.
For example, when performing a keyword search, there is a possibility that a user may enter input that does not provide any hits within the database or keyword index. In these instances, a user's input will not be able to locate any relevant job requisitions. In some cases, there may be a job requisition that is relevant to the user's search objectives, but is not located due to the user's input. For example, the user's input may include a misspelling, or may utilize different terms, describing the same topic, than that found in the job requisition, database, or keyword index.
In addition, when performing a keyword search, there is a possibility that a user may input search terms that result in an excessive amount of hits. The result itself may take a significant amount of time to load. Some of the hits may contain the search term, but the context or overall subject matter of the job requisition may not be particularly relevant to the type of information that the user is seeking. When an excessive amount of hits is obtained, the user may have to spend a significant amount of time sorting through the results or may need to refine his/her search.
This type of information retrieval, which relies primarily on a user generating the input, does not indicate the type of results that a user may expect to receive prior to producing the results. In addition, this type of information may include job requisitions that are no longer valid, and produce error messages when selected.
Furthermore, to relocate an item of information, there may be instances in which a user may have to reenter or recreate the search criteria that were previously entered into the keyword search, and search through the results.